Florida Supreme Court approves ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana
If the provision gets 60 percent in November, it will legalize recreational marijuana in the country’s third-most populous state.
Florida voters will have a chance to weigh in on recreational marijuana legalization this November. | John Minchillo/AP
By AREK SARKISSIAN
04/01/2024 05:43 PM EDT
TALLAHASSEE, Florida — The Florida Supreme Court will not block a ballot initiative that seeks to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults in this year’s general election, giving a major boost to the effort to open up pot use in the third-most populous state in the country.
With the green light from Florida’s conservative-leaning high court and more than 1 million signed and certified voter petitions in hand, Florida voters will have a chance to weigh in on an issue the state’s Republican-led Legislature has rejected for years.
The decision was in response to a request made by Florida Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody to reject the ballot language, arguing the measure fails to remind voters about a federal ban on marijuana.
Florida’s Supreme Court in a 5-2 ruling determined that the ballot language proposed by the Smart & Safe Florida committee to go before voters in November’s election fit the state’s single-subject rule for ballot initiatives.
Justice Jamie Grosshans wrote in the majority opinion that the ballot language was not too confusing for voters, and rejected an argument that the proposed amendment would require the Legislature to create new licenses to sell pot beyond the companies currently allowed to sell medical marijuana.
“We do not believe the summary would confuse a voter into thinking that the Legislature is required to authorize additional licenses,” the opinion states, later adding, “It clearly states that the amendment legalizes adult personal possession and use of marijuana as a matter of Florida law.”
Smart & Safe Florida’s campaign was funded by more than $39 million from Trulieve, which is the largest medical marijuana company in Florida. The proposed amendment, if approved by 60 percent of voters in November, would allow Trulieve and the 24 other companies licensed by the state to sell and grow pot for medical use to begin selling to anyone over the age of 21.
“We are thankful that the Court has correctly ruled the ballot initiative and summary language meets the standards for single subject and clarity. We look forward to supporting this campaign as it heads to the ballot this Fall,” Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers wrote in a statement, later adding that a coalition of companies has formed to aid in the campaign to November.
Trulieve operates 131 of the 618 medical marijuana dispensaries in Florida, and Moody used the Tallahassee-based company’s market position to argue that the ballot language was not written within the best interest of voters.
Lawyers from Moody’s office argued in briefs — filed before the court heard oral arguments in November — that the company was footing the bill for the initiative so it could lure consumers to willfully break federal law in the name of profit.
The justices all but dismissed Moody’s arguments during oral arguments. The same court had previously rejected two legalization initiatives from recent election years, handing down decisions that identified several mistakes. Lawyers for Smart & Safe Florida argued that the proposed language sought to address the mistakes that were cited by the court in the previous decisions, and Moody’s lawyers argued that the court should reconsider parts of the previous decisions.
In Monday’s opinion Grosshans wrote the amendment does not violate the single subject rule by impacting the state’s medical pot industry.
“Selling and possessing marijuana appear, for better or worse, directly connected, and we cannot say that an amendment addressing both components violates the single-subject requirement,” the opinion states.
Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2019 was hailed a champion by medical marijuana businesses and patients just weeks after he first took office, after he called on the state Legislature to repeal a ban on the sale of smokable marijuana known as flower.
DeSantis has since signed legislation that tightened the state’s controls on medical marijuana marketing to further prevent advertising that attracts children and implied that products were for recreational use. And his annual state budget recommendations to the Legislature have included millions in funding to expand testing, safety and enforcement efforts at the Office of Medical Marijuana Use.
DeSantis has, however, called recreational pot use a “real problem,” even lamenting the plant’s “stench.” While campaigning for president last year, DeSantis told reporters that marijuana has become more potent over the past two decades and warned that it could be laced with fentanyl.
“I think it’s a real, real problem, and I think it’s a lot different than stuff that people were using 30 or 40 years ago,” DeSantis said. “And I think when kids get on that, I think it causes a lot of problems.”
Florida already has the largest medical marijuana program in the country, with more than 871,000 patients registered with the state Department of Health.
More than 71 percent of voters legalized pot for medical use in 2016 after a successful ballot initiative backed heavily by high-profile Orlando lawyer and self-proclaimed “Pot Daddy” John Morgan, who contributed close to $7 million in cash.
